Friday, June 22, 2012

It has taken me much longer to sit down and write this as I would have liked. Truth of the matter is, I've been spending the last week swallowing hard, reflecting, and trying to figure out what the hell happened myself. The gist of it is that I ran 68 miles last weekend at the Big Horn 100 Mile Endurance Run. For the first time in my 100 mile running "career", I made it through the entire night without stopping for a nap. I was doing great, having reached the 50 mile turn-around at 12:40am (13:40 Run Time). But then something happened out there.. and I'm still uncertain as to what that is.

The 16 mile downhill from the 50 Mile turn-around to Mile 68 took me about 7 hours to complete. Most of it wasn't pretty. My feet were hamburger thanks to 2 and 3' snow drifts still present up high and the melting snow ceasing a quagmire of soupy mud. I could feel the "skin fold" starting to flare up and a whole lot more. A sizable blister formed on the ball of my right foot beneath my big toe. I was urinating uncontrollably it seemed. Like clockwork, every 20 minutes for 4 hours, I was stopping to pee. At one point, when I stopped to do "the other" I peed on myself.

Monday, June 4, 2012

It's always great to remind each other that this running thing that we do is supposed to be FUN. No doubt about it. I have a motto with everything that I do.. "if you're not having fun, then why are you doing it?" I've asked myself the very same question during 100 Mile races... where once the fun was gone, I decided to go home early..

This past weekend I worked on a video that was the brain child of Jerry Armstrong. If you don't know who Jerry is.. he's one of those top 5 or top 10 runner types who actually hangs out with mediocre runners like myself.. even while training for big races. In the year that I've known Jerry... I know for a fact that this dude... "GETS IT."

Jerry came up with an idea for a video a month or two ago called Running is Fun. It was a huge hit.. and inspired many folks to reach out and say thanks. "Thanks for the reminder.." that all of this is supposed to be fun. Sometimes we get caught up in the goal, or the watch, or the stretching and hopping about at the starting line, that we forget what this journey is supposed to be all about..

Ever watched a child run?? Ever notice the smile on their face and how simple it really is? NO special shoes, or gadgets or anything.. just fun.